The Art of Investigating
by twintailed
Summary: Naoto had seen him a number of times before anything happened; but it wasn't until later on in those encounters when the Doctor started leaving an impression. Now they have to work together to solve a case threatening both their worlds.
1. Part I

_**The Art of Investigating, Part 1**_

_**a/n: **__I've actually had a Persona 4 and Doctor Who crossover in mind, specifically for where Naoto meets the Doctor, for a while. I'm pretty sure a number of things prompted it: Ten wanting to help everyone by being a good detective and helper, and Naoto having similar ideals, and also the thought of Ten being able to help her accept herself for who she is. And also for someone to help him get over Donna, because. That ain't happening at the moment. That, and really, a detective as a companion kind of figure would be awesome._

_This will probably be a three part story, so wait for it! It was originaly going to be two parts, but I ended up writing and planning more than I expected, and I didn't want to cut out anything, so I'm going to be ambitious. As for timelines with this, the Doctor Who timeline would be post-Donna, and Persona 4 timeline would be post-Naoto's dungeon, before the next one starts._

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The first time she saw him, it was after school. As was her fondness, she had taken to trailing to the highest place she could find, in thought, and mostly to get away from it all. Even if the case could progress smoothly, and she finally understood significantly how they were the only ones who could save the kidnapped and solve the case to begin with, it didn't automatically make all her troubles go away. Naoto's troubles, partly, came from inside the school itself. Minor, but there.

It wasn't like she was unused to it. On the contrary, part of her mind chided her that she should expect it. Living as a boy wasn't all as easy as she wanted it to be. For starters, she couldn't be a boy no matter how she pretended. And even though her secret was out, for the most part – it was amazing how fast rumours spread in such a rural area – some of the girls didn't believe it. And this meant an influx of confession letters that Naoto was beginning to reach the end of her tether with. She was a pretty patient person – given that she was a detective, and was usually the one calming everyone else down – but notes in her locker everyday? She was growing tired of it.

And without the distraction of going to that other world, which they had already indulged her in, or talking to any of her new comrades (though particularly their leader), she had to find other ways to whim it away.

Which was why she was sat atop the hill overlooking town, thinking. And that was the first time she saw him.

There was no sound, no warning, no nothing – just her sat alone with the distant rustling of the wind in the distance, the occasional person walking by, and then suddenly, a man falling headlong out of the bushes at the bottom of the hill – he didn't look like he'd fallen, but he was covered in dirt all the same. What was most distinguishable about him was the fact he clearly wasn't Japanese, a rarity, especially in Inaba. Though then again, she smiled to herself, she couldn't really comment. After Rise had come here and herself; though, mostly Rise; there was bound to be more tourists, but last she heard that had died off.

Still, this man didn't look the tourist. He looked around – briefly up the hill to where Naoto was sat, at which she averted her gaze – and then dashed off in some direction, towards one of the bus stops, where said bus was boarding, and he scrambled on it.

Naoto blinked, still fractionally curious, mostly for the fact he'd stumbled out of a _bush_ of all places, that had to be suspicious and... quite frankly, odd. That said, it was a fairly forgettable event that held little interest to her what so ever.

. . . .

The second time she saw him, she had almost forgotten about the first incident altogether.

It was a Sunday afternoon, and after spending time with Souji on the high street before parting ways at the bookstore, and then not having much else on her agenda, decided to head home. She was just about to exit said store, when a certain coat that she could just make out behind a shelf caught her attention.

Now she recalled it, it was definitely the same as the man who had appeared, literally, out of nowhere. But that was jumping the gun, to put it bluntly. It could just be any man, standing up against the window bookshelf, browsing his way through books.

Until he spoke. "How much is this?" Came a voice – definitely from his direction – it sounded foreign accented, despite the perfect, fluent Japanese. Almost like the detectives in the novels she had read and the movies that had accompanied them. Not only that, but she was critically sure it sounded British.

But once again, that was little to catch her interest. It held no importance. Sighing as she discovered the book she had been searching for was missing, she made her way towards the door, noting that said man was now laughing whilst (attempting, by the sounds of things) to buy whatever book he had been reading... for quite a while, due to the shopkeepers' response. That was an oddity. Standing at the window, watching out of it – no, watching someone out of it-

Naoto mentally chided herself. That was what she would do if it came to being undercover. It was just a tourist, reading a book. No harm at all. She made her way out of the store.

Or, attempted to at least, as the brown headed, converse clad, trench-coated man suddenly came hurtling into her, almost knocking her sideways – and he looked extremely apologetic, almost holding out a hand, but seeing she was fine, carrying on making his way out the door before her, shouting a hurried, "Sorry! Can't stop, need to do something-" and then his voice faded.

Not exactly stunned, Naoto simply blanked for a moment from his lack of manners and sudden scarper out of the door. She then proceeded to make her way out of the shop, but not before catching that said man hadn't even paid for the book he had been looking over for the past half hour.

Definitely weird.

. . . .

The third time she was him, she was in Junes.

It wasn't a mission day – they'd simply met up to discuss the situation, and reconcile, and for anyone to voice any concerns (in her case, was what the killer might be planning, and if she had had enough practice for when – if – anything else had come up. It seemed she had (despite Kanji consistently voicing concerns, the only thing he'd actually commented on through the whole meeting), so here she was). Lacking once again of anything to do of importance after being let go by the Inaba police department, she had one again found herself with free time on her hands, so had chosen to wander around Junes properly whilst she had the chance.

It was then, whilst walking out of one of the elevators along one of the floors, that she saw the same brown haired man, walking in her direction.

Naoto froze. That was her immediate reaction, at any rate. The reaction was like a rabbit caught in the headlights – though she had been mid-step, so she had to put her foot down sometime, and when she did she tottered backwards on her heels hesitantly. It was a stupid thought to nurture, that he was heading in her direction, and she wasn't blind to it – paranoia was something that led to many people's downfalls, and something she didn't plan to add to a possibility for hers.

Only, she was definitely sure, somehow, that he was headed straight at her. Even if his eyes were blank... despite the depths of them, she noticed. Like a swirling mass of never ending at the rims, but the centre seemed dulled, blank, and unseeing. Almost glazed. So, with that reasoning, he couldn't be looking at her... could he? Naoto directed herself sideways, but she couldn't tear her gaze right then.

She looked a bit longer at those eyes, and the face they were set in. A set, determined face – whatever he was doing. It seemed like it was timeless, or full of time, or perhaps both – it seemed like those eyes had seen the end and the beginning of the universe, had seen a thousand or more people die – far too many for one lifetime – and had to suffer and re-suffer loss upon loss, sacrifices upon sacrifices, a shrivel of hope after a shrivel of hope. That's what it looked like – and immediately she dismissed it. Too many novels. _Far too many_, she amended.

This took her all of five seconds to ponder, and by this time he was less than a few hundred metres away from her. Glancing to the side, she was just about to make her way out of his path so she could dismiss the sense of foreboding his footsteps were giving to her – but then, low and behold, he suddenly _did _notice her, and next thing Naoto knew he was right along side her, and she had barely moved an inch.

Not at all clever.

"Hello," he said cheerfully, perfect and fluent once again and all sunshine, though, she could see his eyes still seemed dead, a stark contrast to his voice. Maybe she was just being over analytical. He continued, "Sorry about the other day. Terribly rude of me, I know, but I was in a rush... say... you don't go to Yasogami High, do you?"

"It's no bother," She said, well versed – the second question though, caught her attention, and slightly bemused her. Wouldn't that have been obvious from their previous meeting? But then again, he probably wasn't sure about the area. Tourist and all. She adopted her voice for such occasions when she dealt with people in the police station. "Yes, I am a student at Yasogami High. Why do you ask of such a thing? There is nothing much of interest at such a school."

Well, perhaps there was. Given that the killer had targeted at least six people, if not more by now, that had been and still were students at that very school...

"Oh, been picking off rumours from people in the shops," he waved it off. "I wasn't sure if it was the only school in the area... or not," he mused. "Well, high school. Japanese high school. So many definitions of high school..." for a moment he looked dumbfounded, but the next his mood had shifted back to the original, giving Naoto with little response to come up with than just trying to stop herself from opening and closing her mouth in the attempt to say at least something, or answer something that he hadn't concluded himself. "Well, sorry to bother you. Again. Really, I'm sorry."

"Helping out others is the least I could do," she offered, at least, but he was already on his way again, back on the prowl in the direction he'd presumably been heading before catching sight of her.

Naoto stared after him for a minute before continuing on, and she couldn't help but notice that the dead look was slowly saturating through his eyes onto his face again.

. . . .

The fourth time she saw him, it was probably the most suspicious of all the times she had seen him before. The most unnerving, to be put lightly.

She was midway back to the Shirogane estate, after managing to shake Souji off and stop him from escorting her back, or 'walking her back because he was worried', as he put it. It wasn't exactly infuriating, but it wasn't the easiest of things, either. Naoto was so used to looking after herself that depending on another was a new experience to her, and walking her home due to (something she wasn't even sure could be one) a threat wasn't really helping matters. Long held habits were hard to break.

Whilst she was contemplating her way through how to distract Souji from walking her anywhere the next day, Naoto'd managed to make her way along the Samegawa flood plain, her head pointed towards the clouds, and the full moon that was slowly rising in the night sky, for it always grew darker earlier in the winter - so it wasn't until she eventually looked down that she saw him, sitting on the benches.... watching her.

As was before, Naoto's initial response was to freeze at the avid attention in his stare - but she forced herself to walk forward. From how far away he was sitting, she couldn't be sure if he was watching her with his folded arms and glasses ensemble or watching the sky absentmindedly the way she had, or was simply staring at the banks down to the river. Either way, this... whatever he was doing... had to stop, for the sake of her sanity.

It was with that thought in mind, that Naoto's feet started to move on their own, and before she knew it she was off the path, headed in his direction to the benches underneath the pagoda. Well, if he hadn't been paying attention to her before, he certainly might have absently now, as she made a beeline towards him. A metre or so away from him, she stopped, half dazed at suddenly being there, half frustrated with wanting to understand why he kept on appearing _everywhere _in the past couple of days.

"What are you doing?" she demanded.

"What?" Was all she got her for efforts. She realized then, of all times, that he had been staring over at the riverbank, where she had been, afterall, and his eyes had only flickered once to look at her when she had walked over to him.

Naoto paused, but soon regained her momentum. She wanted to know what was going on. "I want to know what you're doing. I mean, what I really want to know, is - are you following me?" It wasn't something she was unused to, coming with her trade. But, she didn't want to really have to deal with this now she was in Inaba on a case only she and a limited number could solve. She also knew how bad it was to throw accusations around, so she added, "I've seen you several times. Wandering around; watching; showing up in the places I've been, especially the past few days. You even made a point of talking to me at Junes. So I want to know: what's going on?"

His face seemed to slowly recollect and gather what she was talking about - though he kept throwing glances in the direction of the riverbank every couple of seconds, his glasses slowly falling down his nose as he did so with increased frequency. "Oh. _Oh. _Well... no. I'm not following you, mister detective," he said with a slight apologetic grin, before reverting his eyes again. "Shall we say... wrong place at the wrong time? Or, maybe you just have a knack for spotting cases you aren't involved in."

At his response, Naoto had no comeback for - she had hoped he would say that, but the latter part completely baffled her. "What do you... mean?" Was all she managed.

"I mean I'm following a certain chap who just so happens to be following--" Suddenly he jumped to his feet, explanations cut short, as he took two steps forward - Naoto finally looked in the direction of the riverbank where she'd came from, and noticed a pretty normal, average looking man, staring back at them: though he was slowly retreating away, his head flicking this way and that, as if he was about to bolt, as if he knew some secret had been exposed - or was about to be - and he had to get away. It wasn't anyone else that the man beside her was looking at - the darkness from the overhead night sky had prompted most people to go home and stay indoors, despite the light of the moon on the ground, a natural streetlight. So it was definitely this man that the trench coated one was looking at.

He was so normal looking; she'd never noticed him before, unlike the man in front of her who did, in his way, stick out like a sore thumb. _He's the one following me_, she thought, dumbfounded. She had expected an idol like Rise to have the occasional stalker - but a famous, yet still a junior, detective? That was something she really hadn't considered once, but there she was, facing one with all intents on following her everywhere.

Even if this Phantom Thief that Souji was protecting her from did prove to be a hoax, maybe Souji wasn't so far off the mark.

"He's following me," Naoto managed, all in a matter of two seconds. Her voice was a mixture of surprise, and worry, and frustration for herself for not noticing it earlier on. "Not you. He is."

"Yes," the man confirmed, but quickly added, "And he's about to make a run for it, and even if he is a stalker of yours, he's also someone I need to watch before he does something... radically stupid, which makes him my business as well as yours," he said, still managing to hold a demeanour of cheerfulness despite the threatening atmosphere that seemed to have come down out of nowhere. "So, before he does make a run for it, should we put up the chase?"

Naoto would have answered, but something puzzled her. "We?"

"You want to know why he's following you," the man said, and at her look of slight annoyance cross puzzlement, he confirmed, "It's written all over your face. And any detective would want to know the reasons behind anything, right?"

"You'll help?"

"Two birds with one stone. Two heads are better than one."

She smiled lightly. "It's very true. Can't argue with that, I suppose. But how did you know that I, myself, was a detective?"

"Lucky guess," he admitted, sheepishly. "It's also written all over you. Plus I read too many detective novels. Watch too much James Bond. Agatha Christie and all that, too." The names were partially lost to Naoto, but she understood enough.

"I see," Naoto confirmed. From that, he seemed pretty much a detective type himself - even if the clothes hadn't been a statement of that along with his previous behaviour, it definitely seemed that way. "And you are? Your name, that is," she prompted.

"Later," he waved her off, his hand freezing in mid air, and Naoto noticed in her peripheral vision that their quarry had finally decided they were definitely on to him and had taken off in the direction out of town. "Now! Run!"


	2. Part 2

_**The Art of Investigating, Part 2**_

_**a/n: **__Having confronted the Doctor, Naoto learns that the stalker isn't him, but someone else. The Doctor is also working to stop him from destroying space and time – in some way. After failing to corner him, they go back to square one; learning bits and pieces about each other._

_A lot of stuff in here references stuff that's happened in Doctor Who. There's also some Naoto character development hovering around, too. I'm quite happy with it._

_This... was going to be two parts, but having wrote about two thirds of this and looking at my remaining plan, I decided that I wanted to go the full way with finishing it off and would go for three parts instead. A lot of stuff will happen in the next one (and it may be longer so as not to run into four parts, geeze), so stay tuned!_

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Naoto wondered if she must be in the middle of a dream right now, though the stitch in her side was reminding her every couple of seconds that it wasn't. It was far too excruciating for that.

When the man, who, indeed, she had speculated may have been following her for a period of time, and whom she didn't even _know_, had told her to run as the man who actually _had_ been following her disappeared into the night, Naoto hadn't expected that her converse-clad ally really meant it. There was no leigh-way- he was practically bounding along the floodplain and down the quiet suburb streets towards the edge of town, with Naoto dragging along behind – it was more so to her poor height that was the problem factor there. She could run; she was good at it. It was just something that went without saying that she wouldn't outrun much. That and she hadn't been forced to run at this speed for quite a while.

There was an intersection ahead, she could make out, through the dull mist – not fog, just evening mist – and as he reached it, the masked man disappeared down a side street, from what she could make out. Her ally followed suit. A couple of seconds later, Naoto reached the corner, almost to run straight into the back of said ally who had come to a complete stop all of sudden.

In fact she would have fallen backwards, if not for the fact he seemed to step forward at the last minute, allowing her to totter unsteadily forward and back. Whatever had made him stop had made him start again; Naoto looked up, but all she could see was the back of his head, and a very dead-end looking passage.

And no man that they were tailing, and no reasonable explanation for where he had gone, her mind provided. She caught her breath for a second, before walking up alongside her ally, who had made his way to the end of the passage with a very large, inescapable wall. "Is he here?"

"Not right here. He's gotten..." he rubbed his chin, looking confused and frustrated at the same time. "... Out, but he's here somewhere, just... I can't figure out how he did it," he murmured to himself, staring at the walled escapade in front of them. Judging from his face, Naoto could gather he was thinking the same thing she was – that it was impossible for a man to clear such a thing in less than the second, give or take, that it had taken him to follow in pursuit. It just wasn't plausible.

"He couldn't have climbed out," Naoto deduced, looking to the side of her. The mist wasn't dense enough to be of a hindrance. "He couldn't have slipped by you. He couldn't have come back the way we came, because I was there. So, the question is-"

"-How did he do it?" he provided, finally dropping his hands back to his sides – or, one of them, as his right one was now scratching his head in frustration. "There has to be some logical explanation to all of..."

But whatever he was going to say – 'all of this', Naoto supposed – was cut off at the sudden crashing of metal scraping along behind them. The sound was enough to make Naoto cringe at the sharp slice to her hearing – but her fellow didn't. He was already spinning round on his heel, and shouting what sounded like _'No no no!'_ as he ran back to the entrance of the alleyway. Which, now she could see, wasn't an alleyway at all, but a cornered off section for a company that would usually be shut at night. And was now shutting on them, a certain sly, normal looking man hooking the metal locks into place on the other side of the fence.

Inches away from him, the mysterious stalking man sneered, before turning on his tail and walking back into the darkness, leaving her ally to merely crush his fist against the gates in frustration as Naoto ran up alongside, suddenly aware that they were now very much trapped. "Darn!" he cursed.

Most others her age would panic, but Naoto kept a level head, looking from him to the lock, and back again, face set, hardened by a thousand different escapades in the force. "Can we get out?"

His eyes flickered to hers – perhaps momentarily surprised at how evenly voiced she was despite them being trapped, and all she was going through besides – and then he shook his head. "Not easily... I can't jump like a gazelle, regardless of how interesting that would be. But I could probably use..." he rummaged in his pockets, clearly looking for something, only, nothing came out. Confused, he quizzically rummaged around them again.

Naoto left him to it, whilst she briefly analysed the locks – if she had something to pick them with, she could get out, but she didn't. She only had...

"Will this work?" She held out the gun she'd taken from the holster. "If push comes to shove," she suggested.

"Oh..." He stopped searching for a moment, turning to look at her with a mixed expression she couldn't quite fathom, his voice filled with disappointment she couldn't warrant, either. "You have a gun..."

Her eyes narrowed. "Why? Is that a problem?"

Silence followed for thirty seconds, and then he spoke. "It's just unnecessary violence."

"Don't you have a gun?" She raised an eyebrow. If he were what he claimed to be… it would be stupid of him not too. The unspoken words were clearly across her face.

Her question sparked a flicker of a smile on his face. "No. I prefer the... weaponless and planless approach. Whatever rocks the boat when the tide comes towards it, I'll cope with," he grinned, his hand pulling something out from his pocket. "Aha! There you are. I think we won't have to use your gun today."

She blinked, looking at what he'd retrieved – it looked like some sort of sci-fi equipment straight out of a novel... or something similar. Naoto immediately felt her curiosity and childish wonder at gadgets stir within her, and she felt a familiar sense of passive excited-ness when she saw it. It was new, something unseen. It was interesting. She was as curious as curious could be, and that shone through in her words. "What does it do?"

"Watch and see," he said, visibly delighted from his face – he seemed approving of her reaction, at the least. "Can you count the pins inside the mechanism? I just need to realign the settings..."

"Five," Naoto offered straight away. "Already counted them."

He nodded, and pointed the gadget at the chain linked door and the padlock keeping it shut – whatever he was holding emitted a blue light, a high pitched buzzing sound, and next thing she saw, the lock clicked several times and fell to the floor.

"And that, is how we open doors," he said cheerfully, giving the fence a friendly push and holding it open, and Naoto followed suit after him. "Never go anywhere without a sonic screwdriver."

"Sonic screwdriver?" Naoto echoed, still curiously looking at it, before realizing she was. "Oh – sorry. I'm just interested in things like that--" she trailed off.

"Curiosity never hurt anyone. Well. Except the cat!" he said, still cheerful, and holding it out in her direction. "Since I don't think we're going to be able to catch up with that guy before some reconnaissance, and some device building, and figuring out where he's gone... you can look at it," he offered, but still kept a firm clamp around it.

Naoto nodded, realizing the unspoken words – don't touch. And she didn't. She looked at the curves and the texture, the settings panel she couldn't even begin to decipher, though it all followed a sequence she could recognize, and everything else that it held within. After a couple of minutes of looking at it, she stood upright, and he retracted it back.

"It's..." she searched for a word. "Astounding. There's so much within it."

"That's only scratching the surface." His eyes seemed distant, far away. "There's so much more out there."

"Things I couldn't even imagine?" Naoto suggested. She didn't say it patronizingly, or mockingly – she was beginning to understand that this man before her was different. This technology was far advanced beyond earth, and she was sure that he realized that before letting her look at the screwdriver in the first place. But she wasn't fazed.

"Yes," he grinned, nodding in approval. "Things you couldn't even begin to wonder how they came about. Anyway – reconnaissance!" he added, pointing back in the direction they came from.

"I'll lead you back to where we were; I know the area. And, if you need further assistance once we are ready to attempt apprehending him again, I'll gladly give it," Naoto offered offhandedly. "Besides, this issue involves me, so I feel I should have some involvement and help you out as much as possible."

He looked at her, square in the eye. If she wasn't used to such deep, penetrating looks from criminals Naoto knew she would not have been able to look him back without considering otherwise. She still found herself folding her arms, though – an unconscious reaction to protect herself. "If you want to," he said sternly. "It could get dangerous. I don't want to..." he trailed off. There was something else he was saying, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it with the little information she had. "I don't want to put people in danger."

"I'm used to danger," Naoto said, sullen, her face showing signs of years beyond what she actually was. How could she not be? First a detective, now a persona user. Danger was part of the job.

"Well, in that case; let's go," he nodded towards the road. Naoto began walking, and he followed her, keeping pace.

It was an odd feeling, to say the least. Naoto was so used to following; so used to having to follow behind either higher officials or sergeants or her senior detectives. Even with her friends, she followed behind Souji. Not that she minded; Souji was a good leader. But that was the thing – she was always in the shadowed footsteps of someone else. Yet, here she was, with a complete stranger who was heads taller than her, someone who was years older than her, whose name she didn't even know, solving a case they both had a stake in – and he was walking alongside her. Even.

Not judging her, and not presuming he was automatically better.

Maybe he just liked to see whom he was walking with, or that's what he did when it came to walking with people and he didn't know the way. But, even if it was nothing at all – it was a nice feeling to be on equal ground, not behind someone.

Speaking of names...

They'd been walking for a few minutes in silence, and were way on their way back to the floodplain. Now was a good a time as any. Naoto looked at him once, and asked, "Is it later? You said you'd tell me your name."

He looked at her, first, as if about to say he'd told her, before his face cleared.

"The Doctor," he said offhandedly... waiting for her reply, perhaps.

"Doctor," she said. The way he said it... it was not her saying the equivalent of the title of sensei for a western society. This _was_ his name. She could almost hear the capital 'D' in the words he had spoken. "It's a pleasure to be working with you," she added, whole hearted.

"Doctor," he confirmed with a grin. Perhaps it was from the fact she hadn't immediately jumped into asking what his name actually was. With a name like that, she wouldn't be surprised if he got it all the time. "The pleasure is mine, my nameless comrade," he said cheerfully.

She smiled, half closing her eyes in exasperation, almost letting out a slight chuckle – she knew what he wasn't asking but wanted. "Shirogane Naoto."

"Nice to meet you, Naoto-" He floundered round for an honorific, as she could tell from the expression on his face. She wasn't really surprised – he was well spoken in Japanese for one, but she was also still, despite most of the school knowing of her being a woman, dressed in boys' attire. Any outsider wouldn't consider her to be a girl, in their wildest dreams.

So she was half expecting a '-kun' when he finished talking, ready to go along with it.

"_Miss_ Naoto-kun."

That, she did not expect.

And as such had had no time to guise the expression that would follow. It wasn't entirely surprise or shock – having rumours already gotten around, she was past that – but she couldn't quite hide the surprise, as her mouth opened very slightly, enough for someone well educated and in harmony with the world around him or her to notice the reaction. But this was The Doctor, and as she'd already speculated and seen for herself, he was a man of many things, and he would probably be able to see her reaction, too.

He seemed to waiting for her to say something, though, rather than smile, or smirk, or do anything that some would do at discovering her identity. He probably looked slightly pleased to her eyes – maybe it was just a trick of the dark, though – but he didn't look at all like he was going to run with it.

Her partly opened mouth finally closed, and she let out a small chuckle, shaking her head. "Mm. How did you...?"

"Know?" He filled in – she nodded. The Doctor smiled lightly, before carrying on, "Well, the timbre of your voice. I've got very good hearing. It's got the slight tint of a woman in there in your disguise. Not that anyone else would probably notice. Just me."

That did seem a bit pompous, and the expression on his face caused her to laugh slightly. "I'm sure. That, and from my observations, I wouldn't be surprised if you figured this out the first moment you saw me, voice or no voice at all?"

"Well..." He scratched the back of his neck. "Maybe. Maybe not. I just know things when I know them," he said cheerfully.

The small soft smile remained, though she seemed more uncertain that previously. Disguises lifted, her voice seemed to climb half an octave immediately in her next words. "I am once again sorry for my presumptions. About you following me. I merely assumed from over accessing the situation, and I apologize, Doctor. Though, I wouldn't tarry longer in Inaba that beyond necessity," she added, voice caution infused. "You may have heard about the murders, and those are true. And despite the gap, there have been... further cases. I wouldn't want you to get caught up in all of this as well as what you came here to do."

"Murders?" The Doctor's eyes half glittered, with curiosity; it seemed this was one rumour he hadn't got any solid ground on. And Naoto wouldn't be surprised. Who would know? There was the first murder of Saki Konishi, and the second of her sempais' homeroom teacher. No one knew beyond that. That would have been all they had heard. And that had been in July; now was October, and nothing had happened since.

She knew she'd let a bit more slip than necessary. But it struck her, that, with chasing a man set on stalking someone, that the Doctor wouldn't run off because she told him there had been a couple of murders. Part of her knew she'd really have to convince him to go. And even then, he struck her as the type of person not to flee, but to help. And this was something she couldn't allow him to help him. The case of being thrown into the TV was not something she could share; and was not something, even if she could share it, let him take part in. "Yes," she said, not budging in giving him anything else, her face set. "Kidnappings and murders."

Surprisingly, his face split into a slight, wry smile. "It's all right, Naoto-kun," he said quietly. "They don't involve me; they're already set in stone."

Well, that was a confusing statement if she'd ever heard one. Maybe that was the intention, but Naoto found herself frowning. "What do you mean?"

"Hey, is that the floodplains already? Guess we didn't run that far after all—"

"Doctor," she interrupted. Her will was like iron; and she knew someone trying to get out of something when she saw it.

"Yes?" he said innocently.

"You know a detective doesn't back down," she said, voice still set. "So you may as well answer."

The smile returned, but it was replaced by a firm expression seconds later. "I would tell you," He started, sighing, shaking his head and placing a hand to his head, "But I can't. And that's something I can't back down on either. If you insisted, well... I'd tell you.." he paused, thinking of an adequate time. Naoto wondered if it was for him to think of another excuse, rather than when this designated time would be, but she decided to trust him, at least partly. She had her reasons to keep things secret from him; he probably had his own. "... Later."

Somehow, she didn't think this one would be a matter of minutes. "And when is later?"

"Well; that's something you'll have to wait for," He grinned, continuing on in a sudden lope towards the nearing floodplains, back to the benches he had been sitting on less than an hour before, conversation seemingly closed, for now.

But, even though she wanted to know, it was all right to wait. Even if that meant having to find out what it meant without his help. Sometimes, waiting was the only option she had.

"What's next?" She called, as she started to walk behind him, not even thinking about running to catch up this time.

"Where he's going and could go," he shouted back at her. "And I need to build something for that! So we better get back quick!"

"Coming," she sighed, pulling a face, before increasing her pace to catch up with him, not even questioning what he was planning to do this time.

It was strange, her putting her trust in a complete stranger. For, even with his name, that was what he was. A stranger, who she didn't know, didn't know his background or his skills. A few months ago, she wouldn't have thought of it. She'd have followed by the rules, tried to fit in, take everything to superiors who wouldn't listen. But then, Naoto wasn't quite like her old self anymore. That was before she'd been thrown into the TV. That was before she'd started to face herself; and trusted, for lack of knowing them any better, a group of strangers to come and rescue her.

So maybe that was why she felt content as she caught up to the Doctor; as she felt like, maybe, they could solve this with each other's help.

**TBC**


End file.
